Fisher, R., Ury, W., & Patton, B. (1991). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in (2nd ed). New York: Penguin Books.

07/10/08 to 09/11/08
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This book describes the philosophy of principled negotiation. The objective is to get people away from adversarial, positional bargaining. The book was relatively readable and provided good examples of the various techniques. The sections detailing the rules for brainstorming and the recommendations for working with common tricks negotiators use seemed particularly useful. The "Analytical" table of contents in the back is also much more useful than the one up front. The most notable criticism I have of the book is that it seems like it tries to speak to too many audiences at once. It moves back and forth between using examples of negotiations from high politics to talking to the contractor working on your home. Also, the authors present a vignette at the beginning of the book in which two people are bartering over the price of an object. I remain unconvinced that there are principled negotiation alternatives to simply bartering, and the authors never return to the example with suggestions. Maybe I'm OCD, but thinking about that bothered me for the first half of the book.